Matt.GC
TS Member
It even has a railway line named after it. The Severn Beach line runs from Temple Meads, through Bishopston up to Clifton down then along the Avon Gorge, through Avonmouth and terminates at Severn Beach.
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Matt.GC
TS Member
It's busy up to Clifton Down as it's used as a bit of a rapid transit link. Then it tends to loose passengers as it goes through Sea Mills and Shirehampton and arrives at Avonmouth pretty quiet. It often then turns back and goes back to Temple Meads as it's only a single track line with a crossing point at Clifton Down which is the busiest station on the route. But I think 1 train per hour carries on past Avonmouth. The next stop is St Andrews road which is a request stop in the middle of Avonmouth docks then terminates at Severn Beach where it reverses back to Temple Meads.
DistortAMG
TS Member
Ahh I love that part of the country. Bristol and the surrounding areas, absolutely love it. My location in my profile (the knights templar) is the name of one of the spoons in Bristol in fact. Just love the vibe around the west country, Gloucestershire and Bristol areas, best in the country in my opinion.
QTXAdsy
TS Member
Forgot to mention something else about Kirkcaldy, or the Lang Toun as it gets called. At one point Kirkcaldy was pretty much the place in all of Scotland and arguably all of the UK that supplied the largest amount of Linoleum flooring around and is sometimes was called as the town that floored the world.
And another thing is that a person from Kirkcaldy is often called a Langtounian so next time you visit my neck of the woods, remember to mention that as many will actually be impressed by you knowing much about our wee town
And another thing is that a person from Kirkcaldy is often called a Langtounian so next time you visit my neck of the woods, remember to mention that as many will actually be impressed by you knowing much about our wee town
Matt.GC
TS Member
Ah the Knights Templar. Was late for a train home once because of that place.
It's a very vibrant city, very multicultural and has a great bohemian vibe to it. I was born there as well as 2 of my children. There is a dark side though, it's always struggled with its past and there are very dodgy street names that date back to the days of slavery (Whiteladies Road that then branches off and turns in to Blackboy hill and loads of stuff named after Colston). But then it does have some awesome place names such as 'Fishponds' which no one believes me is an actual place until they Google it. Massive north south divide too. Most of the transport links, rail lines, motorways and industry is heavily concentrated in the north of the city where there's alot of wealth. The south of the city has some of the poorest council estates in the country.
I'm not one for being proud of where I live, but I do live where I do by choice. I have a job where I could easily transfer to anywhere in the country I want and we've even discussed moving due to house prices around here (we actually now live in the cheapest place with a BS postcode, I couldn't even move back to where I grew up if I wanted to as I wouldn't be able to afford it). But we just love where we are. Bristol and the employment and facilities it brings is only up the road. 2 hours away from London, just over an hour away from Birmingham, 40 mins from Cardiff, about 45 mins to the Devon border, seaside towns everywhere (although the beach in Weston is pretty crap and Clevedon is pebbles). Forest of Dean, the Cotswolds, Somerset levels, Glastonbury, Dorset all pretty close by.
Only downsides are it's pretty expensive to live here these days (south Wales is becoming expensive now as well now the bridge toll is gone people are buying in Cardiff and Newport to work in Bristol) we're nowhere near any theme parks, Bristol is heavily congested (has no rapid transport system or ring motorway, which is strange for it's size) and the accents aren't particularly sexy.
I don't drive a combine harvester or drink cider by the way.
Edit- Oh and Bath (you guys would pronounce it Ba'ath, we pronounce it Baff). Forgot to mention it. One of those places you'd hate to live but it's a joy to visit.
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Matt N
TS Member
Bristol's a thoroughly interesting city, in my opinion, even as someone who admittedly hasn't spent too much time in Bristol city centre itself beyond Cribbs Causeway (My mum always took us to The Mall at Cribbs Causeway, the South West's largest shopping centre in case you're wondering, a fair amount when we were kids, and Cribbs was also where we always used to go to the cinema. I'll digress that I haven't actually been post-COVID, however... I'm not much of a shopper myself.).
We used Bristol as a case study a fair amount in GCSE Geography, and we actually did our urban fieldwork down at the waterfront in Year 11.
Geography taught me a fair amount about Bristol, and it's a very interesting place indeed... as @Matt.GC said, it's an incredibly diverse and multicultural city, particularly around areas such as St Paul's (from memory, I think the percentage who aren't White British in St Paul's was something like 40%... I could be wrong there, though, as GCSE Geography was a good 3 years ago now), and in an interesting trend, its population seems to be getting younger, in stark contrast to the aging population in the rest of the UK. In a rather happy fact, Bristol was also voted the nicest city in Britain to live in, apparently!
From my own (admittedly somewhat limited) experiences, Bristol is a nice city; it all seems fairly modern and fresh, with lots to do, and there's also a surprising amount of history, too!
We used Bristol as a case study a fair amount in GCSE Geography, and we actually did our urban fieldwork down at the waterfront in Year 11.
Geography taught me a fair amount about Bristol, and it's a very interesting place indeed... as @Matt.GC said, it's an incredibly diverse and multicultural city, particularly around areas such as St Paul's (from memory, I think the percentage who aren't White British in St Paul's was something like 40%... I could be wrong there, though, as GCSE Geography was a good 3 years ago now), and in an interesting trend, its population seems to be getting younger, in stark contrast to the aging population in the rest of the UK. In a rather happy fact, Bristol was also voted the nicest city in Britain to live in, apparently!
From my own (admittedly somewhat limited) experiences, Bristol is a nice city; it all seems fairly modern and fresh, with lots to do, and there's also a surprising amount of history, too!
Jonathan
TS Member
I haven't been to Bristol in years, but I quite like it from what I remember, especially with a lot of history stuff related to Brunel. If I'm going down to the South West, then I've sometimes stopped at Cribbs Causeway instead of one of the service stations on the M5, as it's a much nicer experience - plus things like food are often cheaper.
Matt.GC
TS Member
This is what mean about the city's north south divide. Everyone's been to Cribbs Causeway and Filton (the home of Concorde by the way). But I bet you no ones been to Hartcliffe or Knowle in the south of the city?
I first went to Cribbs Causeway in the 1980's with my mum when I was a little lad. All that was there was the Asda which at the time was a Carrfoure (French supermarket chain that pulled out of the UK and sold their stores to Gateway, who then sold their larger stores to ASDA when they nearly went bust in the early 90's), the Toys'R'us (now a Dunelm last time I drove past after they did go bust a few years ago) and the retail park that comprised of an Argos, a Comet, a Curry's and a few other shops. We used to call it the "birdcage" shop's because they were painted yellow at the time and looked just like Tweety Pies bird cage from the WB cartoons. Nothing else was there, just fields. No Venue, no Mall, no Ice rink, no Charlton Hayes, no Makro, no hotel, no Jaguar Land Rover garage that rips me off twice a year just fields, a small retail park comprising of about 5 shops, a supermarket, a Toys'R'us and Filton Airport where Concorde use to fly in and out of for servicing. The rest was just fields right up to the M5.
Cribbs Causeway was the adopted name of the place. It's actually just the name of a small road that leads from Henbury to the M5 junction. The area gets it's name from that road. My mum brought us our Sega Master System from the Comet as a present (I think this was around 1988) and on the way back we stopped off at Bradley Stoke so she could go to the bank. Bradley Stoke was also mostly fields and me and my brother watched from the car all these diggers churning up the ground to build the new estate. A few years later, me and my mate rode our bikes to Cribbs (about 9 miles from Yate) to buy ISS on the PlayStation from Toys'R'us and we saw them building The Mall and The Venue from the top of the hill. We couldn't believe how big it all was. No internet back then so we have no idea what they were building.
The first McDonald's I ever went in was the one at Cribbs by Makro and Morrisons behind the Audi showroom (none of them existed then, just the McDonald's). McDonald's weren't everywhere back then like they are now so it was quite a unique experience at the time.
Sad to go up that area now in a way. Although still pretty decent and vibrant, The Mall, being less than 30 years old has a fair few shuttered shops. The Toys'R'us (which was very American in style) is gone. The ASDA, was Gateway/Carrefoure, which was the first "Wal-Mart Super Centre" in the UK just looks way too big for its sales (Longwell Green, which is smaller, is actually the busiest ASDA in Bristol). But saddest of all is what's happened to the Aircraft industry. My father and Grandfather both worked in Rolls Royce in Filton, it's the reason they moved from Cardiff to the area (and probably why I was born English, my Grandad used to have to drive all the way up to Strensham I believe to get to Bristol to go to work before the Severn Bridge opened in 1966). All now rubble with expensive houses being built on it. The saddest of all is Charlton Hayes, built right across the airfield. As Richard Branson put it "trapping Concorde forever" (referring to the British Concorde model 002) in it's final resting place at Filton Airport. We used to see Concorde regularly flying over the house when we grew up on its way from Filton to Heathrow and watched it on its final voyage as it flew into Filton for the last time. Now it couldn't take off again if it tried as a new housing estate and A road has been built right across the runway.
I first went to Cribbs Causeway in the 1980's with my mum when I was a little lad. All that was there was the Asda which at the time was a Carrfoure (French supermarket chain that pulled out of the UK and sold their stores to Gateway, who then sold their larger stores to ASDA when they nearly went bust in the early 90's), the Toys'R'us (now a Dunelm last time I drove past after they did go bust a few years ago) and the retail park that comprised of an Argos, a Comet, a Curry's and a few other shops. We used to call it the "birdcage" shop's because they were painted yellow at the time and looked just like Tweety Pies bird cage from the WB cartoons. Nothing else was there, just fields. No Venue, no Mall, no Ice rink, no Charlton Hayes, no Makro, no hotel, no Jaguar Land Rover garage that rips me off twice a year just fields, a small retail park comprising of about 5 shops, a supermarket, a Toys'R'us and Filton Airport where Concorde use to fly in and out of for servicing. The rest was just fields right up to the M5.
Cribbs Causeway was the adopted name of the place. It's actually just the name of a small road that leads from Henbury to the M5 junction. The area gets it's name from that road. My mum brought us our Sega Master System from the Comet as a present (I think this was around 1988) and on the way back we stopped off at Bradley Stoke so she could go to the bank. Bradley Stoke was also mostly fields and me and my brother watched from the car all these diggers churning up the ground to build the new estate. A few years later, me and my mate rode our bikes to Cribbs (about 9 miles from Yate) to buy ISS on the PlayStation from Toys'R'us and we saw them building The Mall and The Venue from the top of the hill. We couldn't believe how big it all was. No internet back then so we have no idea what they were building.
The first McDonald's I ever went in was the one at Cribbs by Makro and Morrisons behind the Audi showroom (none of them existed then, just the McDonald's). McDonald's weren't everywhere back then like they are now so it was quite a unique experience at the time.
Sad to go up that area now in a way. Although still pretty decent and vibrant, The Mall, being less than 30 years old has a fair few shuttered shops. The Toys'R'us (which was very American in style) is gone. The ASDA, was Gateway/Carrefoure, which was the first "Wal-Mart Super Centre" in the UK just looks way too big for its sales (Longwell Green, which is smaller, is actually the busiest ASDA in Bristol). But saddest of all is what's happened to the Aircraft industry. My father and Grandfather both worked in Rolls Royce in Filton, it's the reason they moved from Cardiff to the area (and probably why I was born English, my Grandad used to have to drive all the way up to Strensham I believe to get to Bristol to go to work before the Severn Bridge opened in 1966). All now rubble with expensive houses being built on it. The saddest of all is Charlton Hayes, built right across the airfield. As Richard Branson put it "trapping Concorde forever" (referring to the British Concorde model 002) in it's final resting place at Filton Airport. We used to see Concorde regularly flying over the house when we grew up on its way from Filton to Heathrow and watched it on its final voyage as it flew into Filton for the last time. Now it couldn't take off again if it tried as a new housing estate and A road has been built right across the runway.
DistortAMG
TS Member
Absolutely fascinating hearing about Bristol from local people actually.
Funny you mention Cribbs Causeway, when I was doing temporary shop fitting work, we fitted out the Oak Furniture land from a shell into a finished shop, in Cribbs, December 2013/14 I think it was. We turned up on the Monday, the large unit was a complete shell, with just the mezzanine floor installed, not even the elevators at the back of the store had been fitted.
The shop opened to the public on time, 6 days later on the following Sunday. One of the most fast pace fit outs I've ever experienced. At one point there was about different 15 trades on site, with about 120 workmen. Working around the clock to hit the deadline. Managed it, right up to the wire. Still fitting light fixtures 10 minutes before the shop opened to the public at 10AM.
Funny you mention Cribbs Causeway, when I was doing temporary shop fitting work, we fitted out the Oak Furniture land from a shell into a finished shop, in Cribbs, December 2013/14 I think it was. We turned up on the Monday, the large unit was a complete shell, with just the mezzanine floor installed, not even the elevators at the back of the store had been fitted.
The shop opened to the public on time, 6 days later on the following Sunday. One of the most fast pace fit outs I've ever experienced. At one point there was about different 15 trades on site, with about 120 workmen. Working around the clock to hit the deadline. Managed it, right up to the wire. Still fitting light fixtures 10 minutes before the shop opened to the public at 10AM.
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Poisson
TS Member
I did a fair bit of work at SGS WISE Arena (Basketball mainly) and only ventured once into Brizzle itself to work the Cricket World Cup. Central Bristol seems a lot worse than Filton area. The docks was my last visit to BB Marine and the new depot to do the HPC connection works. Docks seemed less rough than central Bristol.